


it's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you

by othiara



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Stranger Things Fusion, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, F/F, Force-Sensitive Finn, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-13 20:59:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13578828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/othiara/pseuds/othiara
Summary: After Rey disappears suddenly from their small town, Poe and Rose take it on themselves to find her. They don't expect the strange, nameless boy they find in the woods or the deep-running government conspiracy or dark, magical underbelly of their town.orA Star Wars Stranger Things AU





	1. chapter one

Rey disappears on a Friday. For the first few hours of the day, things seem normal. The only class Poe has with Rey in the morning is engineering, which she can afford to skip occasionally because she's a natural. When she doesn't show, Poe just assumes it was a late night, and she'll turn up at some point later that morning.

When she's not at lunch, he knows something is wrong. So does Rose, and she says as much the second she sits down across from him. “Rey is missing.”

That would seem a little severe, except that Rey has never missed a meal in all of the time Poe has known her. She grew up mostly on the streets and in bad foster homes, which taught her never to miss an opportunity to eat well. No matter how sick she is, Rey wouldn't miss out on a government-ordained meal.

“Maybe she got the flu that's been going around and passed out or something?” Poe suggests.

Rose frowns and shakes her head. “I talked to her last night. She was fine then. But she told me she'd call me this morning before school, and she didn't.”

Since when are Rey and Rose so friendly? Poe considers asking, but Rose is blushing fiercely, and her expression tells him it's a no-go. “It could have been a very sudden onset illness,” he offers again. Rose glares at him. He relents. “Fine. We can go check.” He sighs. He does not need another truancy on his record. His dad will really chew him out for this one. But it's either that or let Rose take his car without him, since she doesn't have one of her own. Besides, he is actually a bit curious.

The drive up to Rey's current home is filled Poe's best musical selection and Rose's inescapable jittery quiet. Poe pulls into the driveway right next to Rey's nasty, fixer-upper, junker of a car. If she's not here, this is actually serious, because Rey drives that thing everywhere.

Rose hops out of the car. “I'll go talk to him,” she volunteers. “We've already met, and he doesn't much like Rey hanging around men for some reason? I can just do it,” she babbles, slamming the door shut behind her.

Poe lets her handle this one, wondering idly why she would have already met Rey's current foster dad. Rey always makes a point of keeping away from home whenever possible, and that certainly extends to keeping her friends far away from whoever is tasked with taking care of her this month.

While Rose is in the middle of what looks like an unpleasant conversation, Poe hears a car roll up behind them on the old gravel road. He hops out of his car easily, assuming that it must be Rey, back from whatever strange adventure had kept her this long.

It is not Rey. This car belongs to the police department, and it is currently driven by the police chief, Leia Organa. Poe has just enough time to exchange a panicked look with Rose. He knows it can't be here for them, even if they are skipping school right now. The police here don't have nearly that kind of reaction time. This is about Rey.

God, what if something happened to Rey?

Chief Organa's boots crunch across the gravel. Poe can't do anything but stare. She looks kind of exasperated. “Shouldn't you kids be at school?”

“Rey didn't show up. We were worried. I thought we should go make sure she's okay,” Rose offers up timidly.

“It couldn't wait a couple hours?” Leia asks grumpily.

“Apparently not,” Poe says, eying her. “Did something happen?”

Leia sighs. “I'm here for the same reason you are, I guess. Rey's foster father can't seem to find her.” She shakes her head in disapproval. “It's not to worry. I'm sure she'll turn up soon. Won't get far without this car of hers.”

“She wouldn't do that,” Rose interjects, startlingly bold for her. “She wouldn't just leave,” she adds defensively.

Leia looks unimpressed. “I'll send out some search parties if she doesn't turn up in a day or two.”

“Don't you think that's a little too –“ Rose cuts herself off, frustrated at being unable to find the right word. “I mean, lots of people go missing in this town. Don't you think you should take this a little more seriously?” She's using that tone of voice she uses when she thinks too hard about her sister. Paige went wandering in the woods about a year ago now and never turned up again. Poe can see where this would hit too close to home.

He also can see that it is the exact wrong thing to say. Leia knows all about the disappearances. Her son was among the first group that vanished years ago, along with all the rest of her brother's special group of students.

Leia goes cold and hard around the edges, and Poe rushes in to mediate before this can get ugly. “You worked those cases, so I'm sure you would know best, but it can't hurt to organize a search party of friends now, can it?” He puts on his most charming smile. “We've known Rey a long time, and this really isn't like her.”

Leia fades back into being just normal amounts of prickly. “Fine. We can start tomorrow morning.” Rose makes to cut in, but Leia saves her the trouble. “It gets dark at about 5pm this time of year. We wouldn't be able to cover half the ground we need before then, even if Rey has a lot of friends.” She gives them a look that says she knows that she doesn't. “Besides, we need time to organize a good sized group.” She softens slightly. “That girl's tough. She'll be fine. Just wait and see.”

.:.

FN-2187 emerges into the world, breathing fresh air for what he thinks is the first time. He is covered in dirt and sweat. The fear shakes through him like a harsh wind. He pushes it down.

Honestly, he is at a loss. He never thought that he could make it this far. He just knew he couldn't keep doing this anymore. No more innocents should get hurt because of him.

He lets himself get a sense of what is around him. There are people nearby, ones he does not know. They do not feel powerful like Kylo Ren or cruel like Hux. He can no longer see the First Order Laboratory from here, though he can still feel some of their presences in the back of his mind, getting angrier by the minute. They will find him soon.

He pushes forward toward the unfamiliar people. Stray branches poke uncomfortably under his bare feet, and the wind cuts through his thin hospital gown like it's nothing. FN-2187 bears every moment of it and does not once wish to be back in the temperate, clean laboratory.

The people he sensed earlier sit around each other, chattering easily as they eat and drink. FN-2187 makes use of their distraction and slips in through the back door and directly into the kitchen. He keeps his head down. As soon as he finds something that looks like food, he digs in, hoping that he can get out of here without any violence. If he can get far enough, maybe even Kylo Ren won't be able to find him.

The food tastes good, so good that it pulls him away from his situation, makes him forget himself. Is this what all food tastes like outside the First Order?

Suddenly, a tiny woman is on him and barking angry and sour words at him. FN-2187 shocks away and tries to run, but she catches his arm and holds it, squinting at him. He knows he could break her grip easily if he needed to, but he doesn't want to hurt her. Besides, her expression is quickly shifting from angry to something he doesn't quite recognize. She grabs the pair of glasses she wears on a chain around her neck and shoves them onto her face. They are wide and circular and magnify her eyes almost comically. Her face softens even further now, and she grabs the food off the table and pulls him aside into a back room.

She thrusts a pair of clothes into his hands, talking so fast that he can barely make sense of it, but he can understand this well enough. While he changes, she hovers by the door to make sure he can't run. She is still talking to someone, this time on the phone. FN-2187 listens in enough to know that she must be talking about him. He hears her say, "This is one for you, Leia," with a sigh. He has just barely enough time to wonder what a "Leia" is before she is barging back into the room.

She gives him more food to eat and watches him like a hawk. FN-2187 doesn't particularly enjoy it, but he is used to being watched. He was one of their prized projects back at the lab. Phasma and Hux and sometimes even Kylo Ren himself all came to watch him at various times. But this woman hasn't seen any of the things that he can do, and she has never tried to own him. Her stare unnerves him a bit just because she is a mystery.

There is a disturbance, he suddenly senses. Something is coming, maybe already here, and it is bad. Finn feels it just a few seconds before the knock comes on the door. He shoots to his feet, one hand automatically coming to a salute position at his head. It's the bad people come to get him. Finn untenses himself just enough to begin running. The woman looks at him with more interest and something else. She says something empty and calming, but it does not change what he knows in his heart.

He runs. He is barely close enough to still hear the gunshot ring through the friendly woman's building.

.:.

Night has just barely fallen when Poe drives Rose out to the edge of the forest. Poe is nothing short of stupidly brave when it comes to the people he cares about, but even he can see how easily this could turn out bad. But they both agree that finding Rey can't wait until the morning. Rey may be the heartiest among them, but even she might want some help fighting whatever demons lurk in this forest.

Plus, he knows he could never rest without a good search. Rey needs them. That thought alone is enough to keep him going. He pulls two flashlights out of his bag and hands one to Rose. They turn them on. Two thin, weak searchlights cast through the thick treeline, not even making a dent in the oppressive darkness. Poe can see how easy it would be to lose someone out here. The flashlights may not do much, but he likes to think they're enough that they won't miss an entire 16-year-old girl.

"We have to stick together, okay?" he says, surprised to find his voice calm and level. Rose is trembling fiercely. Poe knows she must be thinking about her sister again. He just hopes that Rey's story won't end in the same cloud of hopeless mystery. One way or another, they need to know.

Rose nods resolutely. "We should get going if we're going to cover all this ground by the end of tonight," she says, then marches off into the woods. Poe hurries to keep up.

They walk for what must be hours in silence. Even Poe, who normally talks enough for their entire group, can't come up with the right words to say. None of it is enough in the face of the fact that they're out here looking for their best friend, or whatever's left of her.

Nothing is ever going to be the same if they can't find Rey. Poe misses her more desperately than ever.

They make it almost to the edge of the woods before they hear it. A branch nearby crackles. Quiet footsteps sound across the otherwise silent forest.

"Rey?" Rose calls out, sounding breathless and desperate. Poe turns around, and the two of them shine their flashlights at once on the figure down the forest path from them. It is not Rey.

It's a boy about their age. He is wearing clothes that don't fit him at all, just a t-shirt and sweatpants, not even any shoes. Tonight's harsh chill must make that almost unbearable. He looks like he's made of skin and bones, like he hasn't eaten a full meal in his life. He is frozen in the light of their flashlights. The light reflects off his wide, fearful eyes, making him look like a deer in the headlights.

Rose huffs a sigh of disappointment, and the spell is broken. Poe moves closer to the boy. He doesn't actually run, but he does stumble back a step. Poe aches acutely for him.

"Hey, buddy, you okay?" he asks, not really expecting a response. He takes off his jacket. It will be a cold walk back to his car without it, but at least he has a proper shirt on underneath. This boy doesn't even look like he's known warmth. Poe holds out the jacket for him. He accepts it and quickly wraps himself in it, looking grateful but still wary.

Poe can feel Rose's eyes on his back as he steps closer. This time, the boy allows it. “I'm Poe,” Poe says slowly. “That's Rose. What's your name?”

The boy stares at him for a couple seconds, like he's weighing the words in his mouth. “FN-2187,” he finally answers.

“What?” Rose asks. Poe was thinking something much along the same lines.

“That's...your name?” Poe asks again. He receives only a jerky nod this time. The entire picture leaves him feeling sick to his stomach. Who would do force a kid to be nothing but a number? Not to mention the fear and hunger and cold he has clearly been subjected to. There's a story here, and Poe doubts it's a good one. “Okay. I'm going to call you Finn, if that's alright with you.” That seems like a good start. Everyone deserves to have a name.

His face twists into the ghost of a smile, and he nods. Poe grins back, feeling himself relax marginally. “You can come back to my place. We can get you warmed up, some fresh clothes maybe.” Poe doesn't know where Finn got the shirt advertising Maz's Cantina, which is much too tight, or the sweatpants, which were clearly made for someone twice his size, but he's sure he has something better in his closet.

Rose clears her throat pointedly. “We need to find Rey,” she insists. Poe's stomach drops at the reminder.

“He's freezing, Rose,” Poe says, brows knitting together. Then an idea pops into his head. “Besides, he looks like he's been out here for a few days. He could have seen what happened with Rey.”

Rose still looks reluctant, but she caves. “I guess we've done almost the full circle anyway.” She sounds profoundly disappointed in a way that Poe wouldn't have expected, but she wipes the look off her face quickly and starts leading the way to Poe's car.

Poe takes up a slightly slower pace, keeping time with Finn. He still has about a million questions. He knows that this isn't exactly a normal town. It's dangerous, maybe, and sometimes deadly, but not exactly torturous. Not like this.

An image of whoever did this to Finn getting ahold of Rey pops into his head and almost stops him in his tracks. He forces it down. Rey can hold her own. He knows that. And if she's wherever Finn was, then at least she's not lying dead in one of the ditches in this forest.

.:.

FN-2187 – no, Finn, he gets to be Finn now – is a little overwhelmed by his new company. They still watch him like everyone else had, especially Poe, but the look is different, much warmer than even the woman from earlier. He thinks it might be kind. And he really likes this jacket. He doesn't think he has ever worn anything so comfortable.

They're going to question him over something, he thinks, but he doesn't fully understand what. For some reason, it is of the utmost importance to them that he is warm and comfortable first. Finn isn't going to complain about that, but it is a severe contrast to the First Order Laboratory.

Poe frets over him. He brings him more clothes, which don't clench around him or dwarf him this time. Finn slips the jacket back on over these clothes, enjoying the heavy feeling of protection and the smell, which is a combination of something from a car and Poe himself.

Poe has an odd look about him that Finn can't quite recognize. He reaches out mentally and feels his stress and what he thinks might be genuine compassion. “You want coffee?” Poe asks. Then he interjects, “No, wait, maybe not. How about some hot chocolate?”

Finn hasn't had either of those things before, and he doesn't really know what they are, but he doesn't want to disappoint Poe, so he nods.

Poe comes back a few minutes later holding a cup, which he passes to Finn. It is warm to the touch. Finn takes a tentative sip, then winces at the sharp burn in his mouth. Poe winces, then says, “Sorry, buddy, it's pretty hot. You should wait a couple minutes before you drink it.”

Finn nods slowly, then sets the cup gently on a table. Poe sits down next to him on the couch and looks at him expectantly. Finn doesn't know what to do except look back. It is a good view. Finn thinks Poe might be a good man, and he is certainly a good-looking one. Finn really hopes he doesn't end up getting this one killed.

“Well?” Rose says. She sits curled up in the armchair across from them. She is more anxious than Poe. It rolls off her in thick waves. She aches for someone, too, deep in her heart. “Um, Finn,” she continues, “did you see a girl about our age in the woods? Sort of tall, brunette, had her hair in three buns.” There is a wave of fondness from Rose that is laced with pain. She looks at Finn and feels hope. It makes him want to run until his lungs give out.

He didn't see this girl. She sounds as alien as these two have been. But he knows exactly where the people who vanish from those woods go. He has been there himself too many times, forced in by the First Order. He has been there more than enough times to know that he never wants to go back.

“No,” he says eventually, forcing the small word from his throat. Rose's face falls, and so does her gut, down, down, down. She seems like she might cry. Finn hates to be the one who made her this way. He looks away and sips his hot chocolate so he can avoid that piercing, tearful gaze. The drink is sweeter than anything he has ever tasted, and yet something in his stomach still sours.

“No?” she asks manically. “You have to have seen something. She can't just be gone.”

Poe shifts, looking almost protectively at Finn. “We knew it was a long shot, Rose. The woods are pretty big. We'll go back in the morning.”

She shakes her head. “He knows something. He has to know something.” She glares at him, then is abruptly ashamed and turns that glare onto her own feet.

Finn wants to give her something, but he doesn't want to give her any more false hope. Her friend Rey is as good as dead, even if she isn't actually yet. No one except the First Order's finest has ever come out of the Upside Down.

Something makes him want to stay here with these people. He likes them. He likes their kind eyes and real smiles and true hearts. If he can't help them, they will probably just leave him in those woods again. Poe will probably even want all his nice clothes back. That thought is almost too much to bear after such a long day and so many kindnesses.

“I can help you find her.”

 


	2. chapter two

The wind howls and bites and hisses. The forest here has always been dark, perhaps even spooky, but never like this. Rey isn't the type to be scared away easily. She's always found refuge in places that send most people running. This is entirely different, though.

There is something wrong with the shadows. They keep moving, stretching their long arms out like they want to hold her. She gets the feeling that their hug wouldn't leave her feeling very comforted.

Darkness hangs over everything like the most suffocating blanket. Rey has been here – wherever here actually is – for what must be hours now. The light of day should be long since shining over everything, revealing how silly her fears are. But it doesn't. It won't, something deep inside her whispers.

A bad feeling slides into her head. She jumps back a couple of steps. Deep black tendrils snap out to exactly where her feet were.

Rey shivers. There is an essence of this place that is trying to slip right through her and into her bones. It's like this whole place is really just one big thing which is trying to digest her.

She wonders briefly if this is what happened to Han's son and Paige Tico. If this is how they died. Rey can imagine herself dying here, being pulled right into the ground. Her essence would join up with every other screaming soul in here in that giant, writhing mess of dark power. She can feel them now. She knows it would not be peaceful.

That's not the only thing that keeps her moving and hoping for escape. Rey actually likes her life these days. High school isn't bad, especially since she can drive herself around now. She mostly has enough to eat. She even has friends, plural, these days, which is an impressive change.

Most importantly, she has Rose. Rose, who lights up the room any time she smiles. Rose, the only person who can come even close to beating Rey at mechanics. Rose, who is an incredible kisser and maybe the most sweet and thoughtful person Rey has ever met.

What they have is certainly something worth staying alive for. If she can, that is. She doesn't know how long it has been, but she does know that she desperately needs to sleep. Unless she can find a safe shelter, she'll be a goner pretty soon.

.:.

Poe stares at Finn, completely dumbfounded. “What do you mean you can help us find her?” Finn doesn't even know Rey, or any of the rest of them for that matter. Poe watches him fight his clear terror to help them and briefly considers the idea that they may have found an actual angel in the woods.

“She's in the bad place,” Finn says. He pauses, seeking the words. “Upside down,” he adds.

Well, okay, maybe he just isn't all there mentally. He's looking at them like what he just said should have some deeper meaning. Rose, at least, seems to buy in. “Upside down?”

Finn just nods. “It's bad. Dark.”

Which also isn't really much of an explanation, but it does get Poe thinking. “Is that where you were?”

“Sometimes.” Finn looks pained and curls into himself a bit. Poe feels a sudden rush of guilt. Finn has clearly been to hell and back. They shouldn't be putting him through anything else.

“How do we get there?” Rose asks. Poe can see worlds of determination packed into her tiny frame. She looks about ready to fight ten tigers and win. Finn, on the other hand, looks almost green.

“No,” he says.

Rose frowns. “What do you mean, 'no'? You know where Rey is, so we can go get her.” She pauses, then adds softer, “You don't have to go back there if you don't want to, but I do. She's my...friend.” The pause before friend is very noticeable. There is definitely some other word that fits it better, something more there that they could have had. It's so epically tragic. Poe wants it to be happening to anyone but his best friends.

“You will die,” Finn says, quiet but very matter of fact. Poe's blood runs cold.

“But Rey is in there!” Rose snaps, borderline hysterical. She pauses as the full meaning of the words sinks in. “No, she's not dead. No. I don't believe you.” She stares Finn down. Tears are running down her cheeks, but she pays them no mind. “She's not dead, and we're gonna save her.” She stands up, fidgeting too much from wild excess energy to do anything but pace.

Finn doesn't answer. Poe feels sick. “You went there,” he says slowly, trying to piece it all together. “How are you not dead?” Rose grasps onto that point, nodding vigorously.

Finn's face turns to a different kind of fear and discomfort. “I'm...different,” he mumbles. “The First Order teach us.”

“So you can go get her,” Rose says.

Finn's eyes go a little wider at that suggestion. He's back to that afraid look. Poe wishes more than anything that he could wrap him up in a blanket and tell him that everything is going to be okay, but he doesn't like to think of himself as a liar. On instinct, Poe wraps an arm around Finn's shoulder.

“It doesn't have to be you, buddy. If First Order Lab can teach people how to do this, they could teach us, too, right?” he means for that to be soothing, an easier alternative, but Finn startles away like he's been burned.

“ _No,_ ” he insists. Then he looks sorry and scared again. He folds in on himself for a second, then explains, “They were bad. I ran.”

Poe thinks back to that terrified, shivering version of Finn he met earlier tonight. Yeah, escaped lab rat makes sense. What the hell are they doing in First Order Laboratory?

“It's worth it,” Rose says quietly. Every bit of her is determination. “Whatever the price is, it's worth it.”

Poe hates every part of this. He's never felt anything quite like this pure fear and uncertainty and dread. Losing Rose could only make this worse, but he can't tell her not to go, either. This is her choice, much as he may hate it. It feels like a suicide mission, and Rose is worth so much more than that.

“No,” Finn says again resolutely, surprising both of them. “I'll do it.”

.:.

Their plan right now is very bad. Finn hates the plan. He hates most of all that he agreed to the plan, that he hasn't already run as far as his legs could carry him and then even farther. The last thing he should be doing is heading back towards First Order Laboratory.

They had agreed that time was of the essence, so they should do this as soon as possible. That forest has a few different openings to the Upside Down. Finn could feel them, so he's confident he can find them again. He had been using that sense to avoid them, because that is something that someone who wants to stay alive does. This is a lack of self-preservation that the First Order might have been proud of, if it had been in their favor.

This whole thing is going to come crashing down. There are so many things that could go wrong that Finn can hardly count them. Even if, by some miracle, he makes it out unscathed, he doubts Rey will. He's had some experience with the Upside Down. It isn't a thing that most people live through.

Then there is the fact that this plan involves him just walking around right next to the First Order in broad daylight. Poe claims that the police chief will protect him if it comes down to it, but Finn thinks this whole thing either ends with him back in the lab or in a body bag.

Poe dresses Finn in even more of his clothes, with shoes this time, then smiles at him and claps him on the back. Finn feels warm and happy somewhere under the layers of anxiety. He smiles back.

Poe drives them there in his car. Rose takes the front seat and jiggles her leg the entire time. Finn can feel the nerves rising off her like steam off a cup of hot chocolate. Poe isn't so consistent. He just _feels_ – guilt, fear, anger, sadness, love. Even just being near him fills Finn up to the brim.

Poe and Rose prepared him as best they could for the search party. The group is made up of a few members of the police, including the chief that Poe had mentioned, plus a few teenagers and adults who may be their parents. It doesn't look like Rey was all that popular. It is still an interesting crowd, though, and Finn can instantly sense many things that Poe hadn't told him.

Han Solo, according to Poe an older engineer who taught Rey everything she knows about cars, is weighed down with grief and love and a persistent ache for a time long gone. Perhaps even more interesting, Chief Leia Organa is a moving, versatile beast. She carries power with her that Finn knows instantly she can deliver on. She can sense him sensing her, he knows instantly. He tries to blend in with the crowd, but it's hard since so few people are there.

Chief Organa marches up to him immediately. Finn tries to contain the terror shooting through his veins, if only so that she won't see it. “Hey. I'm Chief Organa. I don't think we've met.”

Finn tries to act like he's introduced himself to people before, like he's had a name for more than 8 hours. “I'm Finn.”

“Nice to meet you, Finn,” she says. She smiles. Her presence is commanding but calm and warm. “I'm not all that scary, am I?”

Finn doesn't know what the appropriate response is here. “No, ma'am,” he says cautiously.

“Call me Leia,” she instructs. “You should come see me at the station sometime when all of this is over.” Finn feels the fear rise up again – she wants him to come to a jail, she wants to put him back in his cage – then feels something like comfort and reassurance wrapping around that part of his mind. In all his life, with all the different powers he had seen in the lab, no one had ever done anything like that before. It is that that makes him decide that he likes her.

Leia looks satisfied, and she wanders back over to where the bulk of the group is standing. Poe and Rose are both giving him questioning looks. “What the hell just happened?” Rose asks.

Finn just shrugs helplessly. He's not sure he could explain it if he tried. He's starting to get the idea that not everyone feels the world around them in the way that he does.

The search party splits up into groups of two and three, which works out perfectly. The three of them wander off on their own, seeking out Finn's gut feeling. He dreads the moment he does eventually find it but not enough to lead them wrong. Maybe if, by some miracle, this all works out the way Rose and Poe are hoping, they could help out Finn, too. Maybe they could even all be friends, but Finn doubts it. He doesn't think he's the kind of person that gets to have friends.

He feels it, then, that echoing, empty, dread-filled feeling that means he's almost on top of it. He stops walking, feeling that emptiness leeching into his skull. “Here.”

Rose's eyes widen, and she starts looking around for some obvious sign that won't be there. Not everyone can feel the call of the dark. Poe just looks at Finn and feels a kick of something deep and intense. Finn lets that echo instead of the dark emptiness. It feels grounding. It feels like it could make itself into a home if he would let it.

Poe wraps him into a tight hug. “Don't die, okay?” He releases him slowly but keeps a hand on his arm, a welcome, comforting pressure. “We'll be right here. You better come back.” Finn doesn't get where else Poe thinks he would want to go. It doesn't make sense unless he's concerned about Finn dying, but that seems unlikely. They've only just met. There's no reason to think Finn is anything more than a means to an end for him.

“Bring her home,” Rose says.

Finn nods. He steps forward and down, down, down into the depths.

 


	3. chapter three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it's been so long! all that's left after this is an epilogue which hopefully won't take me nearly as long to write
> 
> this is the chapter with the canon character death, you have been warned

Rey is very nearly bending to the will of her fatigue, which wants nothing more than for her to accept how heavy her limbs are, how much her whole body aches, how badly she needs to shut her eyes. She doesn't know how much longer she can take this and still remain standing, still be any approximation of winning.

At this point, succumbing to the darkness would be a relief. It would be happy to consume all that she is, and she would be happy to get a single moment of rest. Something still stops her from taking that rest, a deep-rooted determination to live, but she fears it won't be enough for much longer. But then she feels something – not darkness, maybe not entirely light, but it's there. It's new but constant and beating and alive, and oh, she could cry from joy.

She half runs and half stumbles in the direction she thinks this life is. She doesn't know if she's getting it right or how she knows any of this at all, but her exhausted brain is certain. She follows and follows until she is certain that this is a trick of her dying brain, and then she sees him.

She doesn't know him. If she believed in any sort of God, she would say this must be an angel. He sees her, too, and runs over to meet her. He has a firm grip, which is enough to keep her steadily upright. “Are you Rey?” he asks.

“Yeah,” she says, staring at him. He maneuvers them gracefully out of the way of one of the tendril monsters. Rey wonders if she was ever that graceful in this place, then thinks, probably not.

“I'm Finn. Rose and Poe sent me.”

Rey couldn't stop the grin from spreading across her face even if she wanted to. “I'm going to make it out of here,” she says with a sense of wonder that she hasn't been able to find in at least a day now.

“Yeah,” Finn says. He sounds pretty surprised about it, too. “This way.” He guides her through the dark fields of nothing good to a particular patch of nebulous goo. It doesn't look any different from afar, but now that Rey is close enough, she can feel it. There are good things, living things, loving things through this doorway. She can find that world again.

Finn helps her through the relatively small opening. As she presses through, she can feel her sense of gravity righting itself, though she hardly even noticed it was wrong to begin with. She closes her eyes and breathes in the greenery, that beautiful essence of life and goodness itself. She wouldn't have even known how to articulate that need before she had it so abruptly torn away from her.

When she opens her eyes, what she sees is less than an idyllic beauty. Her friends are there, as she expected them to be, but the guns trained on them are a shock. Strangers stand behind them, gripping them forcefully and pressing pistols roughly into their sides. Rey's breath catches at seeing Rose in such a position. She can't go through all of this and then lose them. She just can't.

Before she can react, she gets her own share of the fun treatment. A pair of strong arms grip her tightly from behind, and she feels the cold, hard press of a gun against her ribcage.

.:.

Poe feels an uncharacteristic anger coming from deep inside him. He doesn't know how he can make it happen from this position, but the First Order will pay for what they're doing.

They had found him and Rose almost immediately after Finn went through the portal thing. Neither of them had been expecting an attack, so they were snared embarrassingly easily. They've been forced to stay here watching the First Order secure their friends, too. Poe aches openly. All of this to save each other, and they might all die today anyway. These people still could just be here for Finn, but that would be almost as bad. Poe promised him that he would be safe. He knows that he hasn't even known Finn for a full day, but he's attached and guilty. Finn could have actually gotten away from these horrors if not for them.

Poe had tried to talk his way out of this one, but the goons holding them don't want to budge. Even his relatively strong ability to just keep talking had run dry after getting smacked with a pistol. The sharp ache in his cheekbone and the taste of blood linger, never letting him forget where he is. He had told them that Chief Organa would find them. He really hopes that's true, but these are big woods. It's getting easier by the minute to see how so many people might have just disappeared.

Rey falls into the world with a total lack of grace. She looks awful. Her buns have half fallen out, and she's covered in various scrapes and scratches, and the circles under her eyes are dark. But she's smiling, a real, happy, warm smile that makes Poe's heart swell. He's glad she's alive, even if that has a chance of changing soon.

Her face rapidly falls into confusion and anger as she gets a good look at them. One of the First Order lackeys firmly grabs ahold of her and presses a gun to her side, much like the one Poe has at his own. "Who the hell are you people?" she growls. The boy leading the First Order group, a scrawny emo-looking thing not much older than the rest of the kids, looks her over. Poe can't decipher the look they're exchanging at all, but it seems like maybe Rey can. She stares right back, resolute and strong and firmly resisting. "Let my friends go," she commands gutterally.

He smirks. "I think it's a little too late for that, don't you?" Poe's blood runs cold. Of all the ways he thought he might die, this, shot dead in a forest by the people running the town's science lab, was never one of them.

The shadow under the tree ruptures again. Poe watches as Finn draws himself up and out of there, more graceful and solid than Rey. He has that same shy smile on his face. Poe hates to see it get wiped off like this. As Finn sees the full scope of what's happening, he starts to look scared, but then it shifts to an anger like Rey's.

"Well, look who finally decided to show up," the First Order boy whines. The men surrounding them don't bother grabbing Finn right away like they did with Rey. There's no point when he's already frozen. "You know the punishment for desertion, FN-2187. I intend to let you serve it." He smiles and turns to look at Rey. "I think we've already found your replacement."

"They didn't do anything," Finn says slowly. "Let them go."

"One day in the real world and you think you can tell me what to do?" The boy looks positively murderous, although still so juvenile and petty.

"Organa will find out what you're doing," Poe cuts in. "She'll stop you." It might be too late for him and Rose, but it sounds like they're planning on keeping Rey and maybe Finn alive, and that's something. That's worth plenty.

The boy has the audacity to laugh at that. "It's a national lab. It's out of her jurisdiction. Besides, if she could have stopped us, she would have done that years ago."

Poe frowns as the full implications of that hit him. These are the people that killed Leia's son and all those other people. They've killed and killed, and they don't intend to stop. Poe really doesn't appreciate the taste of pure hopelessness. He aches for a happy ending, at least for the people he cares about.

A voice comes from behind them. It sounds vaguely familiar and seems to set Rey at ease. "Your mother's been trying to shut you down for years now, Ben. She's close, I think." Han Solo emerges from the tree line. "You really think she's gonna just let you get away with killing more kids? You're caught, son."

Poe doesn't even know how to react with all the confusion running circles in his head. This is Han and Leia's lost son? He was supposed to be dead. He was never supposed to be this despicable monster.

"Mother is just entertaining fantasies. She could never take us down.” The boy – Ben – puffs up like a lion, ready to sell the company slogan with all he's got. “We draw strength from the darkest parts of this world, and there is no shortage of that."

"No shortage of light either," Han says, appearing unfazed. "There are two ways this ends, son. You could sit in a jail cell for the rest of your life, or you could walk away. Take a second chance." Han moves ever closer. "I know the First Order isn't as strong as you say it is. The dark is eating you alive, son, but you can still be saved."

Ben trembles. "No. I am one with the darkness now." He sounds almost comically lackluster, but Poe is in no position to laugh about it. He still holds all the power.

"You're still my son," Han insists. They are closer now, within an arm's reach from each other. "Come home."

Ben looks thoughtful and regretful and something else, but then a gunshot rings out across the forest, and Solo falls. Poe's ears ring. He can hardly think. Rey screams, "No!"

Poe can't stop looking at Han, who is just a body now. His eyes were so full of that familiar grumpy spirit just a second ago, but now they're empty, soulless. Ben killed him, just like that. His own father. Poe is filled with a choking horror.

Rey is still yelling, but it all feels so distant now. These are monsters. They won't hesitate to kill them all. None of them are walking away from this.

Finn breaks free of the looser grip on him. Poe feels his chest and throat lodge themselves tightly. They just proved they wouldn't threaten to kill. What is Finn doing? Why would he put himself in danger like this? Poe feels something horrible and incredible and deep, and he doesn't really know how to deal with it. He just knows that he can't lose Finn.

Finn has grabbed a knife off Solo's body and is brandishing it openly at Ben despite the many guns trained on him. "You can kill me, but I'm not going alone."

Poe is struck by what a decent, brave man Finn is. He wants desperately for Finn to make it out of this okay, to make it past the horrible life that Poe can't even imagine and onto something good. There is nothing good in these woods.

Ben just looks amused. It seems to put the humor that got pushed out while he was talking to his father right back in. "As if you could best me." He turns to some of his lackeys. "Put him back in there now, if he's going to be this uncooperative. I can seal it behind him here."

Poe feels his chest sink. That is Finn's punishment. He'll be forced to die alone in the Upside Down, the one place he was most afraid of. The men approach Finn, who can't even hope to take down one of them in their armor with his small knife.

Rey yells, “No!” again, but this time it changes something. The men come to a sudden stop. Rey looks as surprised as Poe feels. “Drop your weapons?” she says shakily with a weak hope that whatever she did will repeat itself.

Shockingly, it does. Everyone there except Finn and Ben drop their weapons immediately. Poe finally feels like he can breathe again without the press of a gun into his ribcage. He shakes free as quickly as he can. Rey continues calmly, “Leave,” and they do. Their little clearing is now empty of all the First Order except Ben.

Ben finally emerges from his shock looking mutinous. “No, come back!” he yells. The men must still be within earshot, but they respond as if they didn't hear him at all. The whole thing is surreal.

Ben raises the gun up again, pointing directly at Rose. “You still have to listen to me,” he insists weakly. “I could still take you out.” His finger hovers shakily over the trigger.

Poe starts planning how he can get ahold of one of the guns on the ground without Ben noticing, but before he can make any kind of action, Finn is tackling Ben to the ground.

It all seems to happen in slow motion, yet so fast that there is nothing Poe can do to stop it. Another gunshot rings in his ears, and Poe can't do this. He can't watch Finn die now, when they were so close to winning. He yells, “Finn!” and runs forward, catching Finn as he finishes falling.

There is so much blood. It is everywhere, covering every part of Poe in what feels like an instant. He presses his hand desperately to Finn's wound. Finn isn't dead, not yet. There has to still be some kind of hope.

“Poe,” Finn chokes out. He's doing that beautiful little half smile, but blood is dripping out of it. Poe isn't ready to say goodbye.

“Buddy,” Poe gasps. Even he can hear the grimace, the pain behind his words. “You're going to be okay. You'll be fine.” The platitudes feel empty. Poe wishes he had taken that anatomy class, because he has no idea where this bullet hit, if it's fatal. He just knows that it's a piercing hole through Finn's abdomen. If he survives, he will always have a scar to remind himself that he saved them.

Finn's eyes are going glassy. He's clearly on the brink of losing consciousness. “Stay with me, buddy, please,” Poe begs, but it's no use. Finn is out. Poe presses his hands as firmly as he can on the wound, hoping against hope that he'll be okay.

He glances up briefly at the sound of a struggle and sees Rey sitting on Ben so that he can't move. His gun is a few feet away, well out of his reach, and he seems to be unable to shake her. Poe wonders when that happened. Rose is almost out of view now, yelling for Chief Organa or anyone to help them.

Poe hasn't let himself think that they might really make it out of this since the beginning of this horrible thing. Now Finn is the only one in dire straits, and Poe wishes that it was him, that he could have been the one to take this fall. Finn deserves the world, and now it is all too likely that he won't get anything but this.

 


	4. epilogue

Finn awakes slowly to a blurry, noisy mass of colors and people around him. He smiles at the feeling of safety that all of them emanate. These are his friends. He has friends now.

He shifts and feels his body explode with pain. A hand reaches out and steadies him, stopping him from hurting himself worse. Finn opens his eyes and sees Poe standing there. Finn smiles.

“Hey, buddy, take it easy for now, okay? You took quite a hit.” Finn can feel his concern and his love and wraps it around himself like the warmest blanket.

“You really did,” a voice comes from his other side. Finn is careful to turn only his head this time to avoid the pain. “Thank you,” Rose says.

That's probably the nicest thing she's ever said to him. It makes Finn feel even lighter. He feels fit to burst from it all. He would do this for them again and again, he decides, if it means that he can have their happiness and friendship.

When he dove at Kylo Ren, he didn't really think it through beyond the fact that he couldn't let anyone else die, especially not these genuinely good people. After he took the bullet, he was sure he was going to die, but he was okay with that. He made his peace. He was happy enough to die in Poe's arms as long as he could be a hero, a man with a name.

This is better, obviously.

Rey and Rose are curled together in a single chair. Rey glows like a fire, all pure and untapped potential and genuine warmth. “Leia said if the bullet had been two inches to the left, you probably would have never walked again,” she informs him matter-of-factly.

“Rey, stop, you'll scare him,” Poe says with a wince. Finn puts his hand over Poe's. He thinks that is something friends do to comfort each other, and Poe's winning smile confirms that it was the right thing to do.

“Sorry. I just meant, thanks for doing that. Since, you know, you don't even really know us." She pauses for a second, then barrels onward. "Leia also says we have magic powers, the Force or something? She and her brother can teach us how to use it, if we want, and we can finally make the First Order stop. They won't ever take another kid, Finn.” Her face is set in an anger that is bitter but righteous. Finn resolves never to get on her bad side.

Finn doesn't know how he would stand up in a fight against the First Order. He feels like he just barely made it out of this one. He likes the idea, though, having something to fight for. He wants to stop the First Order from ever doing what they did to him again.

“Maybe we should let him rest first, babe?” Rose suggests.

Poe nods gratefully and squeezes Finn's hand. “Yeah, we pushed them back for now. And you don't ever have to fight them again if you don't want to,” he says with tamped down anger, as if daring Rey to say otherwise.

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Rey says, like all these choices they're giving him are somehow a given.

Finn lets the silence hang for a moment. So much has changed. It's strange to think it's only been a couple of days now since he was sitting in the First Order Laboratory like normal. “I can stay?” he asks. It comes out as an ugly croak, his voice sounding wrecked from disuse.

Poe softens instantly. “Of course, buddy. You can come stay with me if you want.”

Finn wants that a lot. He leans in closer to Poe, feeling that open, yearning gravity of his.

“We should get going,” Rose says, exchanging some kind of look with Rey. “See you guys later.”

“See you,” Poe says. Finn repeats the phrase. The girls leave, packed much closer together than the hallway requires, hands intertwined.

Poe sits back down in the plastic chair. Finn can still feel the restless energy of him. He wonders why Poe doesn't just move since he wants to so badly but is glad that he doesn't leave. He likes being with Poe.

Poe finally says, “You really scared me for a minute there buddy.” Finn feels that fear. He felt it before, too, when he was lying there in that forest, but he really only had time to think that he was glad that Poe and his friends would be okay. It's strange to think that Poe worries about him. “We really didn't know if you were going to make it.”

Finn doesn't know what to say here. Poe seems to sense that, because he eventually emerges from his contemplation and smiles softly at Finn again. “I'm just glad you're okay. That was stupid brave. You can't do something like that again, okay?”

Finn disagrees. He thinks that was a fine thing to do given the circumstances. He would do it again, as many times as it takes to keep this life and these friends safe. But he can feel Poe's angst and anxiety, so he nods.

Poe leans over and picks up a jacket slung over his chair. It's the one he gave Finn to wear earlier. “Um, it was kind of wrecked from the bullet and blood,” Poe explains, “but I got it cleaned and fixed it up as best I could. If you still want it, that is. We could just get you a new jacket.”

Finn smiles. “Thank you.” It's more than he would ever have asked for. Poe seems to be full of all these genuine gifts and compassion. It's almost overwhelming.

Poe blushes strangely. “Of course,” he says. “Any time, buddy.” He hands Finn the jacket, which really is much more grungy than it was earlier. The cleaning faded away the coloring in some places, and it looks like Poe might have actually just stapled over where the bullet hole is. Finn loves it wholeheartedly.

“I care about you,” Poe says suddenly, a well of emotion springing open in him. “I know we only just met, but I really do. I thought about it while you were under, and I really don't want to lose you.”

Finn can feel his heart swelling and aching in a way that he finds very pleasant. He finds himself at a loss for words to describe all these things that he feels, all these things that he can feel rising in Poe, too, so he doesn't use words. He moves, and Poe moves with him, and then they're kissing.

It's soft and delicate and minimal so that Finn doesn't have to strain against his bullet wound. It feels nice. It feels right. When Poe finally pulls away, it feels like not enough, but Finn thinks there will probably be more time for this later.

He could certainly get used to the sight of Poe like this, his lips a deep red and his pupils blown. “We should take this slow,” he says. “I want to do this right.”

Finn isn't actually sure what that means, but he can feel the good intentions and the warmth and the new home he has here, and that's what really matters.

 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading, hope u enjoyed it! i have most of this written already, the next chapter will probably come out in a couple days
> 
> if you want to contact me about this fic or anything else my tumblr is classic-sapphic


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